S.P. Sullivan/NJ.comThe family of a murdered Lucchese crime family associate has accused a former Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective of outing him as a criminal informant in a federal lawsuit filed last month.

HACKENSACK — The estate of a former Lucchese crime family member has filed suit against the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, claiming that employees outed him as a confidential informant prior to his 2007 murder.

Frank P. Lagano of Tenafly was 71 when he was shot in the head outside an East Brunswick diner he co-owned on April 12, 2007. His murder came about two years after his arrest in an widespread gambling sweep that included around 40 other members of organized crime rings.

In the federal suit filed Aug. 29 [PDF], Lagano's family claims that Michael Mordaga - who was then chief detective in the Bergen County Prosecutor's office - had a "personal and business" relationship with Lagano, and advised him to hire a specific attorney in order to make "90% of (Lagano's) problems go away."

The suit claims Lagano opted against Mordaga's suggestion, and instead accepted an offer from James Sweeney, a former organized-crime investigator for the state Division of Criminal Justice, to become a confidential informant in exchange for a light sentence.

The family claims that Mordaga pressed Lagano to hire the attorney he had recommended, and advised him against working with Sweeney.

Shortly thereafter, Lagano was gunned down. His family claims that his assailant acted on the knowledge that he was working as an informant.

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office did not return a request for comment sent this morning. On Wednesday, however, Prosecutor John L. Molinelli told Cliffiview Pilot that the suit was "nonsense" and filed to prevent the county from keeping assets seized from Lagano's home prior to his arrest.

Lagano's family is seeking more than $4 million in damages, which they claim Lagano would have earned over the next 14 years if not for his untimely death.

In 2010, Sweeney filed a lawsuit claiming that he was fired for pursuing an investigation into corruption among "high-ranking members" of a state prosecutor's office.

According to an article in The Record, Sweeney's suit contained many of the same allegations made by Lagano's family, including that a prominent employee (identified in the suit as "MM") had a business and personal relationship with a reputed mobster (identified as "FL") who had agreed to work as an informant before being murdered.

Sweeney claimed that he pressed superiors to investigate the prosecutor's office on many occasions, but was rebuffed. He also alleged that he was ordered to deny that "FL" had ever worked as an informant, and urged to eliminate evidence of any connection between "FL" and the division.